How to increase conversions with video marketing

Over the past decade, the digital landscape has transformed. Improved technology and the affordable availability of internet on-the-go means people can access content online anywhere at any time – even sizable video files.

According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, video will make up 80% of global consumer internet traffic by next year. Another survey by video editing tool Animoto showed that four times more consumers want to watch a video about a product, rather than read about it. And, according to media measurement company ComScore, after watching a video 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online.

via Animoto

Video marketing is the preferred medium of communication for consumers. Videos receive more engagement, whether they are in your social media posts or on your company website’s landing page. Consumers want video and the more this content is consumed, the more people will convert. The growing dominance of video marketing means that it is something that can’t be overlooked by marketers.

Video marketing works and should be a key part of any modern content marketing strategy. So check out our tips on how to increase conversions with video marketing:

Create high-quality, helpful content

Your content should be helpful and engaging – that goes for all mediums, but with video marketing, it’s particularly important that you don’t skimp on the effort you put into them. Make your videos educational, entertaining and to the point, rather than promotional. Short videos that are 15 seconds or shorter are shared a third more often than those between 30 seconds and 1 minute.

You can create a fun marketing video to build brand awareness and get your name out there, like the Dollar Shave Club did. Or you can simply create a great product video for your site to communicate a world of meaning about your product that could never be communicated by text alone. Online retailer Zappos are a good example to follow; it has a skillful knack for creating product videos that show users exactly what their products are like, while also being on-brand.

Zappos and Dollar Shave Club’s approaches to video marketing are very different, but they are both successful because they provide their viewers with value. One provides entertainment and a giggle, while the other offers insightful information about a product that can inform a visitor’s purchase decisions.

World-renowned marketer, Neil Patel, added a simple demo video to CrazyEgg’s website and says it earned the company an additional $21,000 in revenue. His advice for creating video content is to perfect the story and script, which should be a simple feat for anyone who knows their product inside out.

The more valuable your videos are, the more people will watch them. And if you build a reputation for great videos, you’ll have potential customers seeking them out. You won’t get any conversions if viewers don’t watch your video, so it’s important to grab their attention and then offer them more than just a sales pitch within the content.

Use video in your emails

When emailing potential or past customers, add a video. As you may know, getting readers to interact with an email can be difficult and adding a video is the perfect remedy for this.

According to a study from Experian Marketing Services, simply including the word ‘video’ in your email’s subject line can increase click-through rates by between 7% and 13%. While email with a video embedded had a 21% higher conversion rate than emails with an image.

Modern marketing is moving more and more toward personalization. You should segment your email marketing lists and carefully choose the video you send to each of them. For example, if you’re sending an email to prospective customers, include an introductory video which simply explains what your product is or what your company does. While customers who’ve just signed up might receive a demo video about how to use what your product. Again, this provides consumers with value and addresses their needs.

If you want to really wow a prospective customer with a personal touch, video personalization tools let you create personalized videos in bulk and send them via email. You can check it out and request a personalized video for yourself here.

Use video testimonials

Whether they are written or recorded, testimonials are a great way to build trust and convert prospects into customers. A good testimonial should not come across as a sales pitch. Instead, it should share practical knowledge about your product and detailed use cases for it.

Video testimonials are particularly effective because viewers know the person is real and can see them express positive emotion when talking about their experience with your company, which is more impactful than a written testimonial could ever be.

Great examples of video testimonials that manage to tell a story, keep viewers engaged and get you right in the feels come from Slack, Salesforce, and the below example from Codecademy, which is still great though it’s a couple years old.

Make sure your videos appeal to your target audience and feature customers who fit with your key demographics, so viewers can relate to them. Make sure to use real customers for your testimonials too, because getting caught out using actors could be damaging to your brand.

Include a strong CTA

Every piece of marketing your company produces should feature a call to action, whether it’s a small PPC ad or a resource-heavy video. This can range from prompting viewers to fill in a lead capture form, to driving traffic to your website to encourage sales.

Lead capture forms are great because they can be followed up by the sales team. If you’re confident in your video’s value, you could even add an email gate to some of your videos that require people to submit their email address before they can watch it. The above example is from HubSpot which gates all of its webinars.

But if you have a great website, driving traffic to your landing page or a specific product page using a branded link can be really effective.

Other examples of a strong CTA include asking viewers to sign up for a webinar, enter a competition or get in touch. Remember, your CTA is vital, because it tells the viewer what to do next and moves them through the sales funnel towards the end goal.

Include links within your videos

Another way to increase the conversions coming from your videos is to include links.

YouTube allows in-video links to external pages, which are a great way to draw your viewers back to your website or social media. You can find instructions on how to do it here, but some marketers are reluctant to use these in case they annoy their viewers.

Alternatively, you can incorporate the web address for your homepage or a custom URL into your video during production to provide an avenue for viewers who want to find out more information.

Custom URLs are useful in video marketing because they are short, visually appealing and easy to remember. You can use one of these memorable links to send viewers to a specific web page on your site or even a social media account. If you use a unique link for each video, you’ll also be able to track the traffic and conversions coming to your site from each video.

Up your conversions by A/B testing your video marketing

A/B testing, or split testing, is when you compare two versions of a webpage, a CTA, or an advert to determine what version performs best. By doing this, you can figure out which yields better results. A/B test the length of your videos, their CTAs or their position on your website and you’ll be able to make your content more and more effective. This information is invaluable when it comes to translating videos into conversions.

Follow up with viewers

With video retargeting, viewers won’t be too quick to forget about the video they watched. You can follow up with them using adverts on Google and social media sites. The fact that the people who see these ads have already watched one of your company’s videos indicates that they are interested in what you have to offer and are more likely to convert. With retargeted ads, you can even encourage conversions by offering a discount or special offer to seal the deal.

On Facebook and Instagram, you can choose to target ads only at those who watched your video through until the end. Or, if someone has only watched the first 30 seconds, you can give them a gentle nudge encouraging them to finish watching your video.

In Google AdWords, you can choose to retarget YouTube users who have commented on or liked a video. While you can also target anyone who has interacted with your YouTube channel across Google’s Display Network videos, websites and apps.

Another option is to target visitors who leave your website without making a purchase with video – the same way you would with any other retargeting advert. This works for platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, which support videos.

Think outside of the box

Don’t limit yourself to only displaying product videos or explanations of product usage. Yes, these are effective but there is no need to stop there. Crazy Egg found success when it displayed an animated video on its homepage. While Red Bull turned its videos into a whole online channel for its brand. Zappos managed to stay on brand and win over customers with its informal product videos and helped grow a loyal community using video content created by their staff.

While it’s important not to drift too far away from your brand’s identity, don’t limit yourself either. Instead of creating a boring product video for a pair of sneakers, get someone to do some impressive skateboard tricks wearing them. If, like Dollar Shave Club, you have an entertaining founder, feature him in a humorous video. Get creative and brainstorm with your team to come up with something unique for your company to do.

As the popularity of video continues to grow, marketers need to make the most of this medium. It’s important that they stay on brand, stand out and create valuable content for consumers that will result in conversions.